“But I thought it was interesting that after the hot flashes were gone, I was still such a poor sleeper,” she remembers. “So when I saw my doctor two years ago, I mentioned possible sleep apnea. He suggested that the easiest way to check was for my husband to watch me sleep, but he falls asleep before I do. The other option was to come in for an overnight sleep test, but I wasn’t eager to take the time, so I let it go.”

This spring, Pahuski was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, or weakening of the heart muscle. The left side of her heart was dangerously enlarged.

“The first thing the cardiologist said was, ‘We need to test you for sleep apnea,'” recalls Pahuski. “He told me that sleep apnea would certainly accelerate my heart failure.”

So Pahuski found herself descending the sunny steps into the quiet, underground clinic called Wisconsin Sleep, part of a larger program, the UW-Madison Center for Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research, to have her sleep apnea diagnosed. Each week about 60 patients spend the night there while their sleep problems are analyzed.

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If you’d like to read the other articles I have written for Isthmus this year:

• Tera Johnson’s Big Idea (Whey to go!) A Madison entrepreneur capitalizes on a dairy byproduct.
• Can Ants Save the World? UW scientist Cameron Currie looks to the insect world for insights on how to save the planet.
• Climate Change for Madison Expect more freezing rain, floods and potholes, but at least New Zealand apples grow here now.